Worcestershire Young Farmers County Rally 2018 - #TrueYFC

This weekend Worcestershire Young Farmers held our annual county rally just outside Upton on Severn and as always it was a jam-packed day!

With my A-Levels looming I decided not to take too much on this year so just opted for the Intermediate Cookery and Photography, and got roped into Intermediate Cake Decorating just a few days before the show. Along with a few nights spent helping to get the main exhibit together, this was a fairly light load compared to some years that I spent welding and making countless crafts in preparation for rally.

The theme for rally this year was Magic & Mystery, this inspired a Narnia themed rally box, a witchy cookery display, an attempt at illusion photography and a questionable unicorn cake.

Being one of the smaller clubs in the county, we find ourselves taking on multiple competitions and giving things a go that we aren’t necessarily well practised in. This is how I ended up producing the disaster unicorn cake. It was going badly from the beginning so when the icing colours started to merge together I knew that I needed to throw some sparkle on and call it a day! You can still sort of tell what it’s supposed to be, but it definitely wasn’t my finest performance.

The cookery was what I was most looking forward to competing in, I am now an intermediate member so I am competing with older members now which means there is a bit more pressure. I made a toffee apple inspired stack of pancakes - serving them with an apple compote and salted caramel sauce. I was thrilled to be placed 1st this year - and whilst using 100% British ingredients I was able to talk to the judges about my role as an ambassador for Love British Food!

Rally was a great day all in all with some fantastic results for my club - we were even awarded the title of the most improved club in the county which was a really fantastic achievement for us…

Bring on Rally 2019!

Love British Food Launch 2018

On Thursday I headed down to London for the Love British Food launch for a fabulous lunch delivered by Phil Howard at the incredible restaurant Elystan Street. 

As one of the 14 youth ambassadors for Love British Food 2018, along with Richard Bower, Milly Fyfe, Ed Ford, Georgie Gater-Moore, Luke Winton, Hannah Binns, Ethan Kinney, Chris Manley, Linsey Martin, Mary Ankers, Jack Hodgeson, Josh Dowbiggin and Harriet Wilson, I was honoured to be attending the event.

I headed down to the event full of excitement, eager to meet all of the other young farmer ambassadors, as well as Liz Earle, Raymond Blanc and Candice Brown who are also ambassadors for the campaign.

Upon arriving, I recognised very few people there but after getting talking to lots of the guests it was clear that we all shared at least one thing – a passion for British food. It was great to hear from the competition winners and runners-up, the ambassadors in attendance and even the state secretary Michael Gove about their views on the future of British Farming.

The meal was of course incredible, and chef Phil Howard must be a genius to have produced an all British produce 3-course meal on the same budget that the NHS hospitals have to work on, £4.05.

We started off with steamed hispi cabbage topped with a coddled egg dressing and a sprinkling of Montgomery cheddar. This was followed by a roulade of chicken with creamed potato, leek hearts and spinach. To top it all off, we had organic buttermilk mousse finished with rhubarb and orange. The menu really incorporated seasonal ingredients, celebrated some great British produce, and tasted fantastic.

(P.S. If you want to check out all 3 courses of the meal, I posted photos to my twitter on the day of the event!)  

All in all it was a fabulous day, and we were sent away with a goody bag full of even more amazing British produce!

I am thrilled to be an ambassador for Love British Food, and if you would like to get involved there are plenty of opportunities.

Right now you can start posting photographs onto social media using the hashtag #BritishFoodIsGreat to show the public what is so incredible about the British food industry – these can be of anything from your farms to the fish and chips on your plate as it is all about celebrating British food.

Another great chance to get involved is to post a video of yourself saying ‘British Food is Great’ and post it to Twitter with #BritishFoodisGreat – making sure to tag @LoveBritishFood too. Doing this will not only be promoting British food, but will also enter you to win  a meal for 2 at Michelin-starred restaurant The Elephant courtesy of Simon Hulstone, a top level Michelin starred chef plus an overnight stay at the Cary Arms boutique hotel in Torquay.

For more details on the campaign and how to enter the competition be sure to visit http://www.lovebritishfood.co.uk/

How I trim my Goats Hooves...

It’s hard to believe, but I am getting close to the four year anniversary of getting my goats… FOUR YEARS! And if my maths isn’t as atrocious as I sometimes worry it is, that equates to nearly 100 hoof trims (spread over the 3 goats), because I like to keep on top of their hooves so that they don’t grow too long or uncomfortable. I am definitely no expert at this but I definitely have the hang of it now, so I thought I would share my top tips and advice for trimming your goat's feet - and I suppose a similar technique could be adapted for sheep too.

When we first picked up our goats, the breeder showed us how to trim their feet (at her kitchen table!) and then we were left to our own devices… We relied heavily on tips and tricks from various websites and videos at first and had all of the basic information available to us, but obviously you have no idea how your goats are going to respond to having their hooves trimmed and what is going to work best for you and them until you give it a go!

After a month or so, we decided to embark on our first hoof trimming mission, and seeing as they were still tiny I was able to hold the goats almost like babies in order to get to their feet to trim them. This, however, does not last as they get bigger! So if you want to start off foot care like this then be prepared that you will have to adapt your technique as your goats get bigger, heavier and their horns grow to be more of a weapon…

Now that our goats are full grown, I find that the easiest way to contain them for a foot trim is to use a sheep halter. You can find these at stores such as Countrywide/Mole Valley, but I picked mine up from a western shop in Canada so they are very brightly coloured! I prefer a halter to a neck collar as is distributes the force and is more gentle on the goats, they seem to respond better to signals on the halter than they did on a neck collar as well.

In terms of equipment, you will need, obviously a good pair of foot shears or whatever you may like to call them is essential. We picked up a pair from our local countrywide, and although this isn’t the exact pair they are very similar: https://www.countrywidefarmers.co.uk/lightweight-footrot-shears

In terms of the cuts you are making to the hoof wall, you want to remove any excess growth on the sides, at the toe and the heel. This diagram I found online shows the areas you should be working on. As well as this I like to take a hoof pick (yes a horse hoof pick!), one with a brush at one end, and brush out any dirt from the hoof also make sure to dislodge any small stones that may have found their way into the feet.

If you make a cut too deeply and a small bleed occurs, do not panic! Just have some iodine spray, or some of that purple spray that seems to be entirely magical, on hand to spray the affected area and allow your goat to stand, preferably on dry ground, as the pressure will stop the bleeding.

I hope this has been helpful or at least interesting to some of you, if you have any tips or tricks for trimming your goats’ feet I would love to hear them!

Young Farmers & Uni Interviews

January has been a really busy month so far, with plenty of young farmers competitions to prepare for and university interviews to anxiously anticipate.

I had an interview to study at the University of Surrey on the 12th of January. We travelled down to Surrey on the morning and arrived with plenty of time to spare. Because my interview was at 12:45 and I would be there for nearly 3 hours, we stopped in Guildford town centre and has lunch before the interview. We then headed to the Vet School and I went in for my interview with about 25 others. After the interview, we went on a tour of the campus and got to see the pathology building and the sports centre - both of which I hadn't seen on the open day previously. It was also good to have a look at the rest of the buildings again and speak to some students about how it was living in Surrey and studying at the Vet School. After coming away from the interview I felt really positive about it and waited (very impatiently) to hear if I had been successful. Thankfully, I only had a week to wait before receiving an email informing me to check my UCAS track, followed by another one from the University itself congratulating me on receiving an offer. This is my first offer for Veterinary Medicine so I was very happy to get it! I'm so happy to have an offer now so that I really have something to work for and something to look forward to. 

Last weekend, was the Worcestershire Young Farmer's Public Speaking competitions, so I drove down to Droitwich Spa High School (in the snow!) to compete. I arrived nice an early to sign in for my competitions with bags of costume changes, tablecloths, jugs of water etc. to hand. 

My first competition of the day was one I had never competed in before - Just a Minute. They do this on Radio 4 I think, it's basically where four people take it in turns starting off talking about a topic for as long as they can without repetition, hesitation or deviation from the subject. Some of the topics I had to speak about were zoos, books and pubs, but it can be anything from hats to AGM when it comes to young farmers. Much to our surprise, my club seemed to really take to this competition and we ended up placing first which was great!

Next, I competed in the Junior Member of the Year competition, it was my last chance of competing technically an intermediate this year but the way it works out, if you were a junior member last year you can compete in your first year as an intermediate. I presented my information about how I had contributed to Young Farmers in the past 12 months and then sat my interview. I think it went really well and I really got to show how much I know about the organization and how much I (try) to do to promote it. I was happy with the 2nd place I achieved in the competition and I am looking forward to moving on to Member of the Year (for Intermediate & Senior) next year...

I also chaired the MACE Debating which was something really new for me. It was actually a really tricky job as you have to record the lengths of the speakers' points, make comments, move the debate along and conduct a vote at the end. It is definitely something I would do again now though after giving it a go this year, I think I would be more confident next time as I would know what to expect. Unfortunately, my club didn't place in this but it's the taking part that matters and we all gained a valuable experience from it. 

The last event of the day was the disco dancing. I don't know how I got roped into this one as the extent of my dancing 'skill' - if you could go as far as to call it skill - is my Grade 2 ballet, I left ballet before I even got my Grade 3 so take what you will from that! We practised our medley of disco songs with our very advanced routine containing all the classics: It's Raining Men, the Macarena, The Birdy Song and I Don't Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (oops upside your head), and donned our neon tops, legwarmers and headbands before taking to the stage. We may not have won (or placed) but we definitely entertained. 

As you can tell, it's been a busy start to the year - but start as you mean to go on! 

Christmas Countdown Day Six - Christmas Eve Eve!

It’s Christmas Eve Eve! There is only one more door on the advent calendar to open, and two sleeps until Christmas so it’s all getting very exciting…

Today we haven’t stopped baking and cooking all day! We have prepared all of the Ukrainian food ready to cook for Christmas dinner, and the last of the Christmas baking is done and ready for tomorrow.

I thought that for the last post in the countdown to Christmas I would put together a playlist of 50 Christmas songs for any parties you may need to provide a soundtrack to, or if you just need a compilation of Christmas music for Christmas day!

Here is a link to the playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/katieemorgan14/playlist/3mqbtOvi6NsgzU76fD7psc?si=ORns9TQGTuOZD9jccaiBnw

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas Countdown Day Five! - Tree Decorations

Our Christmas tree is a mishmash of all of the Christmas ornaments we have collected over the years, most of them have stories behind them or are handmade by one of my sisters or my Mum which makes decorating the tree a really fun job as we go through all of our baubles.

This year we decorated the tree with my niece who provided much entertainment by taking the decorations out of the box and declaring to all of us “it sounds breakable!” about every single one. She also used me as a step ladder to get to the tree while I was fixing the Christmas tree skirt…

Every year me and my sisters get a new ornament from Mum and Dad, when both of my sisters moved out it meant that they had almost enough decorations each to decorate their own trees. I have seen a few really lovely decorations this year, with a country twist that I thought I would share.

The first one is this gorgeous glass bauble filled with pheasant feathers from Feathers & Fluff this is a really elegant and whimsical looking bauble that would look lovely on a Christmas tree. I love the look of glass baubles with the soft fairy lights, this bauble is currently out of stock so you may have to wait until next year to order one but it is a very reasonable £5.99 otherwise.  

Next up is this pack of decorations from Jack Wills, they are more of an investment at £19.95 for a pack of 4, although it does work out cheaper per ornament than the last one, but they are adorable and I am particularly a fan of the defender one! These might be a good option if you have a pet or child that wrecks havoc with the Christmas tree as there will be no breakage!

Lastly, this personalised Stag head bauble. This one is more expensive at £7.99 but it would be a lovely gift or commemorative decoration as you can get it personalised with a name or message. Perhaps this would be a nice gift for a family with a new addition, or as a little wedding gift or something similar!

If you’re feeling super organised you could order a couple new baubles this year and put them away with the Christmas decorations and it will be like Christmas (because it is??) next year when you come to get the decorations out next year and you’ve forgotten all about them!

Links to products mentioned:

1) Feathers & Fluff Bauble - https://www.feathersandfluff.co.uk/product-page/pheasant-feather-christmas-bauble

2) Jack Wills Decorations - http://www.asos.com/jack-wills/jack-wills-christmas-decoration-set-union-jack-theme/prd/8906597?affid=14173&channelref=product+search&mk=abc&currencyid=1&ppcadref=761030380%7C47156021942%7Caud-307424994624%3Apla-391969337411&_cclid=v3_ba1ef339-33f6-549d-a1dc-87cde82449c4&gclid=Cj0KCQiA9_LRBRDZARIsAAcLXjdOPGkq7wfPYiGqVS5xJwDQ3jK8fFDxt-LzgKaFLnBuSIxvwVWrV4gaAnBrEALw_wcB

3) Stag Bauble - https://www.alittlebitspecial.co.uk/personalised-highland-stag-bauble-40063-p.asp?gclid=Cj0KCQiA9_LRBRDZARIsAAcLXjdkpRnncdaiQLrqPLnPsDSszsjrfVcj1pjvqqGG_UIGYsPCMUEF-V4aApmuEALw_wcB

Christmas Countdown Day Four! - Christmas Traditions

Every family has different traditions at Christmas time, I love hearing about other people’s family traditions as everyone seems to do Christmas so differently.

In my family, Christmas usually starts with us going to the local Christmas tree farm to get a tree. Ever since I was really little we have been taking our video camera to fetch the Christmas tree and then filming the day, we have videos from every year and they are really lovely memories to have!

As we have some Ukrainian heritage, part of our traditional Christmas dinner incorporates some classic Ukrainian dishes. In the couple of days before Christmas, we usually have a big cooking day when we make Nalysnyky (savoury crepes filled with cottage cheese and dill baked in cream) and Holubtsi (cabbage rolls filled with rice baked in a tomato sauce). We have these alongside all of the usual turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

As well as the Ukrainian food, we tend to do a lot of Christmas baking! So far this year we have made icebox cookies which is my great grandma's recipe, they are a bit similar to gingerbread; iced shortbread biscuits and I have also made some fairy cakes for my Chemistry class. The only bit of baking we still have to get done is the butter tarts which are little pastry dishes filled with raisins, brown sugar and butter.

I have been at my school from year 7 to year 13 and every year, the penultimate day of term before Christmas is a festive day where we can wear tinsel and Christmas jumpers. The teachers put on a pantomime and we all wind down to the end of term, today was our last ever tinsel day as it’s our last year! We went out with a bang, I went all out with my Christmas jumper, light up necklace and reindeer antler scrunchie. There was lots of tinsel, Christmas lights and glitter all over school.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post, only 2 more days until Christmas Eve! Come back tomorrow for another post!